For the Guild

by J E Mueller

  Cat snorted. “Nothing as exciting as communicating with animals.”

  “While it is neat, it isn’t that exciting.” I argued. Most of the conversations were very, very predictable.

  “I’ve got that one weird ability that makes my skin armor.” Cat shrugged. “Stoneflesh I think they call it. So, I guess that’s pretty neat, though overall useless for day to day life. I also have minor telekinesis. Moving small objects from a somewhat near distance.”

  “Now that one is hella useful.” I was definitely impressed.

  She gave a small laugh. “Yeah, okay, I guess that is.”

  I turned on the radio and we listened to the music for a bit before I finally thought of something else to say.

  “Have you ever used your telekinesis to prank someone?”

  “Of course.” Cat smiled brightly, “It’s so easy. Just have something tap someone on the shoulder and they flip out. Oh, or if they really don’t know me, just making anything around someone float is sure to get them to freak out. I swear for magic being a normal thing, people are more likely to blame ghosts than to think ‘oh hey, this could be a person screwing with me’.”

  I laughed. “Well, I’m glad I know ahead of time so you can’t completely pull one over on me.”

  “Pull a prank on the prince? Why I never!” She gasped in mock horror.

  “Uh huh.” I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at that statement.

  “It hadn’t occurred to me to do so yet, but now... guess we’ll see. You don’t normally get these opportunities.”

  “Maybe I shouldn’t have suggested the possibility.” I had really done that to myself.

  Cat gave a small maniacal laugh, and thankfully we finally arrived at the park, so the conversation changed to our mission of finding flowers.

  “Where are we going exactly?” I asked as I took in the scenery.

  “The Hummingbird Trail actually goes pretty close to it. We’ll take for about a mile and a half and then veer left and then we’ll nearly at an entire field of them..”

  “That’s not bad at all.” I nodded and followed her lead. “You come here often then?”

  “Yes, actually I do.” Cat smiled as she stretched her arms out a bit. “This place has most of the plants I need or can make work for enchantments so I’ve hiked here a lot.”

  “I’ve only been here a handful of times.” I admitted.

  “You’re missing out.”

  “Really?” I couldn’t help but be skeptical.

  “Not one with nature?” She smirked at me.

  “It can be fun to hike once in a while with the dogs, but it gets boring.”

  “You need to get out with friends more.” She laughed. “My old guild used to come with me all the time out here. Most have moved away though, which is why James suggested I join in yours.”

  “Not going to lie, I don’t think James has mentioned you before you joined. How do you know each other?”

  “He’s my cousin,” Cat admitted. “So if he has mentioned me, it was probably more family related stuff so I doubt he referred to me much by name.”

  “You know, that’s probably it. He has mentioned cousins before.” I shrugged, not being able to think of a single instance when he actually had.

  We got back to talking about the guild and gaming in general and before I knew it we had reached the flowers. There were a ton more than I was expecting to see. Hues of red and pink scattered the area like a sea of fire. Their soft little petals stood up more like spiky stars and I couldn’t help but wonder how Cat turned this plant into something magical.

  “What can I do to help?”

  Cat glanced over at me as she started to wade into the flowers. “These plants over here look perfect.” She pointed to a nearby collection of them. “I need pretty much the whole plant. So if you’re able to, get as as much of the root as possible. We don’t need too much, thankfully, but be careful if you haven’t handled them before. I don’t want to find out you’re allergic.”

  “I’ve handled them before, thank you.” I had never heard someone comment on plant allergies before. “Is this your way of saying you’re allergic to them?”

  “Them? No. Other plants, yes. I know plenty of people who accidentally stumble on these allergies so I try and warn people ahead of time. Hives are never fun, and surprise hives are the worst.” I watched as her arms and hands instantly turned to scale. Quickly, she dug around the plant as if her hand was a shovel.

  “And you said that magic wasn’t useful.” I gave a short laugh.

  Cat shook her head. “For most day to day things, it isn’t. Odd one offs like this? Well, I forget it’s useful.”

  In no time at all we had the plants she needed in her bag. We were on the trail again like it was nothing.

  “That went quicker than I had expected,” I admitted as I tried to glance at the sky between the canopying trees.

  “How long did you think it would take?” She asked curiously, her arms slowly turning from scale to flesh once more. I noticed a few bruises but answered her question first.

  “I don’t know. A couple of hours? I didn’t think this through.” Going with the flow was sometimes just easier. “Your arm okay?”

  “Well, I guess that just means you have the afternoon to do more things.” She suggested as she glanced at her arm. “Yeah, not sure what that one’s from.”

  “Eh, I hadn’t thought of anything. Was hoping for more of a distraction. I know Mother will be all over me if I go back too soon.” I sighed. The truth was what it was.

  “Well, if you like, there are a few other things here I could grab to replenish my supplies. Or we could do something else. Ice cream is always a win.”

  Both were good suggestions. “Might as well grab the other things since we’re here. It would seem silly not to. Actually, you should have mentioned it.”

  “I didn’t want to consume your day.” Cat shrugged as she looked away.

  “Thanks for the consideration, I will let you know in the future if I have time frame restrictions, so don’t be afraid to mention things. Fair?”

  “Fair enough.” She agreed before coming to a complete stop. “We need to go...” She looked around before pointing at a diagonal. “That way.”

  With that, the adventure continued on.

  It didn’t take too long to grab plants, and grabbing ice cream only added another half hour. Or so I thought. After dropping Cat off and making my way home it was later than I had expected to be out. Thankfully, Mother wasn’t home yet and I was able to slip back into my room without having to go on about my day to anyone. Which was perfect since I needed to shower as I had managed to get dirt and grime all over myself. I didn’t want to give mother an opportunity to comment on it.

  No sooner had I got signed in online than there was a knock on the door and the overly cheerful voice of my mother.

  “My darling son, how was your day?”

  Sighing, I turned away from my computer. “Come on in. How was the tasting?”

  “Oh, wonderful. I brought Leanna along with me. I think we picked some great options. This little ball is going to be a blast.” I watched her eye my wet hair for a moment before meeting my eyes.

  I knew she wasn’t here about the cakes, but I kept up the subject anyway. “Yeah, that should be fun. It sounds like a lot of my friends can make it and everyone is really interested in seeing how a royal cosplay party will go.”

  Mother cringed on the word cosplay, but she knew she had lost that argument years ago. “Of course. I’m sure everyone will have fun. Just remember you have to dance with people other than just your friends.”

  I nodded and gave her a smile. “Of course, Mother. It would be rude to leave our guests hanging like that.” We both knew that was my court voice.

  She seemed pleased enough with my answer despite the tone, enough to change subjects anyway. “How was your afternoon with your new friend?”

  “Great. I didn’t realize that she is James
’s cousin. Small world right? We went hiking in Sparrow Park and got the plants she needed.”

  “You mentioned that. She does enchanting right? Is she doing that as her job?” Mother was pretending to be casually curious as she soaked up any details I would give her.

  “No, I think she wants to, but I’m sure it’s a harder field to break into. Right now she’s working for her family. So she’s busy most of the week.”

  “I’m glad you’ve always had such hard-working friends.” Mother smiled politely as she considered what way she wanted the conversation to go. “Will she be at the ball as well, then?”

  “Doubtful. She didn’t seem too interested, but that’s okay. Balls aren’t for everyone.” Inwardly I was dying with laughter. Outwardly, I just gave a simple shrug.

  Mother nodded, probably knowing exactly what I meant. “Oh, that’s too bad. It would have been nice to meet her.”

  “Maybe another time.” I shrugged again and my game gave a few chimes from incoming messages.

  “Oh, well I see you’re busy. You should invite your friends over more often.” She encouraged, no doubt meaning Cat in particular.

  “Probably. Maybe after the ball. Give everyone a moment to take a break from that craziness.” I smiled and turned to my game.

  With that, I heard her leave and shut the door behind her. I wondered if Cat would even want to come over. Maybe with the whole group, but what would we all do? I sighed as I thought about it for several moments.

  LAN party. Just having the guild over with their PCs would be amazing. That would be worth inviting everyone over.

  My fingers hovered over the keyboard as I considered inviting the guild over. Of course, a few of them knew I was a prince, but still, the other two didn’t so I was up in the air about it all. Maybe a step back. Maybe just an entire guild meetup somewhere public and less crazy pressure than at home-sweet-palace.

  ReyWraith: Mom thinks I need to do more outside with friends, and for once, I might agree. We need some guild shenanigans.

  BloodOath: Like BBQ over at GrimKnight’s?

  DarknessKiss: Oh, I like that idea. I can bring chips.

  NeonGoblin: I can bring stuff to grill.

  BloodOath: ALL THE MEAT

  NeonGoblin: And veggie burgers

  DarknessKiss: I mean sure, only if they’re homemade though. Store bought sucks.

  SkepticalMouse: When? I’ve got work things but it sounds fun.

  GrimKnight: Wait, did you all just invite yourselves over? Wtf?

  ReyWraith: To be fair, I was going to suggest like a pub night but

  BloodOath: BBQ! BBQ!

  NeonGoblin: BBQ!

  DarknessKiss: B-B-Q!

  GrimKnight: you all suck

  SkepticalMouse: I’ll bring potato salad and corn to grill

  GrimKnight: Fine, you all can come. What about this weekend? New expansion isn’t out for another three weeks.

  ReyWraith: Sounds good.

  It was hilarious that my hesitation was for nothing, but I DM-ed Oath anyway.

  ReyWraith: So Goblin and Darkness don’t actually know me, think it’d be cool or?

  BloodOath: Eh, don’t know. I don’t see why not, but Darkness can get weird on things and Goblin loves to be the ‘in crowd’ but we can always drop them if they get problematic.

  ReyWraith: True, but I hate dropping members just because my title gets in the way

  BloodOath: If they can’t take the title they aren’t worth the guild

  ReyWraith: Thanks man

  BloodOath: Heard you hung out with my cousin

  ReyWraith: Did not know until today you were related lol

  BloodOath: Haha, if I knew she would get along so easily with everyone I would have invited her forever ago. She’s fairly chill, but step mom is crazy.

  ReyWraith: Weird, that sucks. She seems pretty normal

  BloodOath: Idk, probably? She’s the best prank partner at family gatherings is all I’ve got

  ReyWraith: lol

  With that, we returned to normal game chat. The next installment of the quest was just a little more level grinding away.

  4

  It wasn’t long before BBQ day was here. I decided to go with a similar disguise method that I normally took on my public adventures. Instead of sunglasses though, they were just standard fake glasses that gave me a slightly different look. I loved enchantments. It made things so much easier for those like me who weren’t the best with glamour spells.

  By the time I made it to the get-together, everyone else was already there. Grim, or Eogan, lived just outside of the city in a smaller neighborhood. Most of the street seemed fairly quiet except for the sound of laughter from the guild at the back of the house. Walking around back, I saw Eogan and James standing by the grill while Keder (NeonGoblin), Natasha (DarknessKiss) and Cat were hanging out around the table that was shaded by an umbrella.

  “Hey, Rey!” James greeted me right away, knowing in advance I was going to be disguised.

  I gave a wave and held up the bag of random snacks I had brought with. “Where do you want these?”

  “Over here!” Natasha pointed to the couple of things already laid out on the table.

  “The food’s taking forever,” Kedar complained loudly as he threw a pretzel at Eogan and missed.

  “Hardly, it’ll be done in a minute.” Eogan waved in our general direction.

  “You look different than I expected,” Natasha commented as I set the stuff down.

  “Depends on the day.” I smirked.

  Cat laughed but didn’t comment. Instead, she snagged a bag of chips and opened them, dumping some on the plate in front of her.

  “What’s so funny?” Natasha didn’t get Cat’s amusement.

  “Enchanted glamour glasses.” I explained. “My true identity may never be known.”

  “Clark Kent style.” Cat snickered and the others joined in laughing.

  “I guess I walked into that one.” I sighed and took the open chair next to Kedar and across from Cat.

  “Fine, we’ve got enchanted glasses and glamour queens. Is there anyone here who can’t magic?” Natasha asked. I wondered who was the one glamouring

  “I can’t enchant.” I shrugged. “But I can use some magic.”

  “I’m not a glamour queen. I can only change my hair color.” Cat explained with a shrug, pink highlights appearing throughout her hair. “That’s such weak glamour b.s.”

  Natasha nodded. “Okay fine. That’s true.”

  “I think we all have at least level one spells down,” James said, bringing over a plate of burgers.

  Eogan was right behind him with a plate of hot dogs and a plate of veggie burgers. “Yeah, I think we all have at least one gift.

  “Geeze, did you make enough food?” I couldn’t help but notice how much there was.

  “Maybe. We’ll see.” Kedar greedily grabbed two burgers and three hot dogs.

  “You’ve clearly never hung out with Kedar before when food’s involved.” James gave a sigh as he set the plates out of Kedar’s reach.

  “Get what you want now or it’ll be gone.” Eogan started filling a plate for himself. While he spoke, Kedar had somehow managed to finish his first hotdog in the thirty seconds that had elapsed.

  As we ate, we talked about random things. Somehow it got brought up that we all pretty much knew each other through James. Eogan and he were neighbors growing up and Kedar went to grade school with them both. I had met James through a gaming convention in high school and we ended up in the same college. Natasha went to high school with him, and well, Cat was his cousin.

  “That sucks that you’ve known him forever.” Natasha laughed.

  “Could be worse.” Cat shrugged, not caring. Her attention was on a monster game on her phone.

  “Haha, funny.” James rolled his eyes at Natasha. “So, what now. We did the food thing, and we’re pretending to be less socially awkward creatures. Sort of.” He eyed Cat’s game.

 
Eogan shrugged. “I’ve got board games.”

  “In.” Cat and Kedar stated at the same time.

  “Lead the way, then.” James motioned to Eogan as we all got up.

  We followed him inside and what should have been the hall coat closet was instead just shelves and shelves of games. Not that anyone was complaining about the selection. It was actually too good to shun.

  Instead of being able to agree on a single game, we started breaking up into groups. Every so often we’d swap games, groups would change, and finally it ended up being me and Cat just looking through the games trying to decide what to play next.

  Cat stared into the closet for a while, but I had a feeling she was losing interest in the event. “Everything okay?”

  “Yeah...” She shrugged.

  “You sure? If you don’t want to play anything, that’s fine.” I hoped my smile was reassuring.

  “I really don’t know what I want to play. These are all fun and all, but I don’t know.”

  “A lot going on that’s distracting you?” It was my best guess.

  Cat nodded. “Yeah, that’s a good way to put it.”

  “Maybe a walk?” I suggested. “Could help clear up your head.”

  She looked from me back to the closet and seemed to be considering the idea. “Okay.” Cat agreed hesitantly before nodding happily to me. “Let’s see how long it takes them to notice we went missing.” She gave a sly smirk.

  It was an amusing idea. “Sounds good.” I gave it at least fifteen minutes before someone thought to look.

  Without a word to the others, we walked out. Truthfully it could be seconds or hours until someone thought to see what everyone else was up to. We were a nosy, but fairly oblivious bunch when it came to group get togethers like this.

  For a while we walked in silence, enjoying the cozy little neighborhood Eogan lived in.

  “It’s always nice out this way. Have you considered living away from the city?” Cat asked me.

  “Of course.” There were too many things I both loved and hated about the city. “But it would make too many things harder than easier.”

  “Royal stuffs?” She asked, genuinely seeming to be curious.